91 Fire shone in North's unseeing eyes as he
turned towards the Doctor. "That will be enough, Doctor!" he snapped.
92 The Engineer's voice came back heavy, strong. "I have to restate my
estimate, sir," he announced, "three weeks. We WILL be ready in three
weeks!"
93 "It's all right, Engineer," North assured, "keep to your old
schedule. Everything must be done right. Too many lives depend on it!"
94 "Dammit, it WILL be done right!" snapped the Engineer, "And it WILL
be done in three weeks! Beg pardon sir, but don't tell me my business!
I'M the Engineer!"
95 "Very well," North agreed. "Let's make rendezvous, gentlemen. Our
ship needs these parts."
96 For the first time in many days North felt hope, hope that he and
his crew would not be cut off from their companions for the rest of
their days.
97 "Firing Control," he ordered, "as soon as there are some free people
available, the bodies of the crew of this vessel are to be transferred
with all military honors to appropriate storage compartments on our
ship. I'm sure the droids have put them in some safe place."
98 "Affirmative, Commander," came a mechanical voice behind North.
"They are in the forward storage compartment directly beneath. I do
hope our embalming procedure and coffins were satisfactory. We had
never done such a process before. But the instructions seemed quite
clear."
99 "Doctor," requested North, "would you be so kind as to accompany
this droid and check on their work?"
100 "Yes, sir!" the Doctor replied. She returned a few minutes later.
"They did beautifully! They look almost as if I could open the tops and
wake them up!"
101 "Good!" North praised, "Good!"
102 For the next few days life on the Morning Star was hectic, but
after a while it slowed down. There